Never Fat As A Child
I was NEVER fat as a child. As a matter of fact, people used to tell my parents I looked like someone out of a prison camp. Looking back at photos of me THEN, I wouldn't say it was that extreme, but my knees were definitely knobby and I was slender and healthy looking. I didn't start to gain weight until I hit puberty at age 14. I was 5-foot-3-inches tall and weighed 109 pounds and my parents started calling me FAT. I was physically active, but never allowed to play sports until I took up tennis at age 14. My parents were BOTH F***ed up beyond belief and thought girls were supposed to stay home pregnant and barefoot, but that's another story.College
In college I shot up to 120 pounds and people began telling me I was "getting fat." I was on the men's crew team (there was no women's team in 1973), played soccer and racquetball (tournament level) and tennis (tried out for the college team and got beat by a woman who was ranked in the top 200 in the world at the time). I wasn't sitting around on the couch eating bon-bon's by any stretch of the imagination. I had back surgery after rupturing a disk (they said I'd never walk again), and three knee surgeries (from downhill skiing, motorcycle accident and simply stepping off a curb the wrong way) and was inactive for several years after that.Hysterectomy and the Diagnosis
It wasn't until I hit 30 and had a hysterectomy for a pre-cancerous uterus that I started really packing the weight on. I shot up to 160, then 180, 200...the numbers just kept rolling on by. When I first hit 200 I started running again. Starting with walking 100 yards, and progressing to 5 miles a day until one day I ran 15 miles without even realizing it. I felt so good I just kept running and running. It was the last time I would ever run. My weight dropped to 147. I was on a roll! But the next day I couldn't move. And it would be a long, long time before I could.I hurt so bad and had no energy. It was like being hit by a bus and getting the flu all at once. All I could do was cry. I was 38 years old and felt like I was 100. Over the next decade or so that lack of energy wouldn't go away, neither would the pain. I couldn't walk, let alone run. It hurt to have clothes on my skin. It took some time, most doctors (may they all roast in hell) told me it was "stress" or "all in your head," or that I was "faking symptoms for attention." It took awhile to get a fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (fibro and CFS) diagnosis.
Every time I tried to work out again I would do well, but then hit the wall and have to sleep for a week. Literally sleep for a week! It has to do with how lactic acid builds up in the body of people with fibro. But more on that later.
My highest all time weight was 273, although I lost 50 pounds the year I was homeless....and since then (2006), I've maintained a 210-250 pound range.
Yes, my thyroid is screwed up, and I have some serious health issues. But that shouldn't stop me from losing weight - which will help me feel better, and maybe kick the fibro and CFS.
Summary
So yeah. Coming into this I'm a train wreck. But I love a challenge. I've tried off and on for YEARS to do this, having success each time — then getting waylaid by the CFS and losing all my conditioning. It's so disheartening to have to start over. This time I'm detoxing, taking it slow and trying juicing along with the other things. I've had some luck with supplements, particularly one called "Lithium Orate." This is OTC (Over the Counter) and is a nutritional supplement that is supposed to help with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. It DOES! It's wonderful.Anyway, that's my story, in a HUGE nutshell...or maybe a coconut.
No comments:
Post a Comment